Madeleine McCann: The cigarette butt theory

EVERY summer since she vanished in 2007, tales of Madeleine McCann have appeared in the papers as fast the hacks could press f9 on their keyboards. When the Olympics London 2012 ends, look out for an Our Maddie story in the national tabloid prress.

Anyone sane wants the child to be found alive and well. Everyone wants closure. The latest news reaches us via The Olive Press, “The best English newspaper in southern Spain.”

The headline announces:

Missing link overlooked in the Madeleine McCann case

Link… Link to what?

A PILE of discarded cigarette butts could have been the link to finding missing Madeleine McCann. A witness claims the discarded butts were found on a shared balcony that had a bird’s eye view of the apartment in Portugal, from where toddler was snatched a few days before her fourth birthday in 2007.

Why is this witness unnamed?

However the tourist, who contacted the police, insists detectives never took vital DNA evidence from them. She had stayed in the apartment a week after Maddie’s disappearance from Praia da Luz, while on a family holiday.

A week after the child vanished, as the parents, police, Robert Murat and the region swirled in a voracious media feeding frenzy this tourist was on the scene.

The tourist is quoted as having told “detectives”:

“You could see the front and back of the building from that view point. It was as if there had been someone stood there for some time smoking. I thought that was odd and it could have been someone watching the McCann’s apartment to monitor their comings and goings.”

Cigarette butts on the balcony at a holiday resort frequented by families, you say. Round up the usual suspects…

funny how the witness is now a she, could have sworn Graham mckenzies statement was word for word, back in June 2007, barf! Next

The Real Stig

DNA – the crime cure-all. So you have your butts and you got you some DNA – then what?
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What do people expect the police to do with it? Show the DNA sequence scrolling down the screen on a TV show like Crime Stoppers – the extra long version that runs for three hours so the DNA barcode can scroll – with a message at the end – ‘If you recognise this DNA sequence and know who it belongs to, call Crime Stoppers on this number:….’
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I remember the fuss made of the DNA of a mystery Northern European male found on the wall in the McCann’s rented apartment. The name, address and telephone number of the perpetrator, scrawled in pencil on the wall, would have been ever so slightly more helpful.
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Emma

Jeez, the amateur investigation becomes more tenuous by the second.
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I wish people would grasp the fact that DNA does not prove a crime has been committed. It can only show someone was present in an area.